The US has a simple plan to make sure we'll never have another Martin Shkreli-like price hike

Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals LLC.
Thomson Reuters
Ever since the world found out about the drug-pricing strategy of a guy named Martin Shkreli, people have been scrambling to come up with ways to ensure that Shkreli's tactics aren't repeated.

For the Food and Drug Administration, that means closing a gap that let Shkreli's Turing Pharmaceuticals raise the price of a 62-year-old drug by 5,000%.

Bloomberg reports that this change could speed up the process for as many as 125 drugs.

Had the policy been in place last year, a generic rival for Turing's Daraprim, a drug that fights toxoplasmosis infections and is particularly needed in people with weakened immune systems, might have been quick to appear. Turing acquired the drug and became its only manufacturer in the US, giving the company the leverage to raise the list price to $750 a pill from $13.50.

A congressional hearing in early February on pharmaceutical drug price increases called in FDA director Janet Woodcock to discuss what the regulatory agency could do to stop this kind of price increase from happening.

Before this update, the FDA did have measures designed to expedite the drug-application process in certain situations, such as when drugs are facing a shortage. The new language adds the urgency of drugs made by only one company (that is, not made under any other dosage level or formulation by another company), such as Shkreli's, that face no competition.